One of my favorite channels on YouTube is Habitual Linecrosser. His greenscreen content is absolutely hilarious. I bring this up here and now because of the way he portrays Poland. I seem to recall him referring to the country as “European Texas” or something like that, which just makes me giddy.
However, I’m not sure that’s accurate.
It might be, though. I suspect in similar situations, Texas might do some of what Poland is doing. What’s more, I think the entire United States should do it.
What’s that, you ask?
Well…as some American teens are begging for their rights to be stripped from them, Poland is teaching their’s how to shoot Russians in the face.
As concerns for a potential Russian invasion increase, Poland is taking action by having children 13 and older take firearms training to prepare. Adults supervise the classes and instead of live ammunition, laser-based systems are used.
“With the state of the world today, I think this type of training is very valuable,” Polish principal Ewa Golinska said during an interview with Metro UK.
Poland shares a border with Ukraine, which is in an ongoing war with Russia, and could be collaterally involved if military actions escalate. According to Metro UK, there are about 18,000 schools across Poland that are going to implement firearms training classes.
The classes used to be optional but became mandatory about three months ago. Although not mandatory, the nation of Switzerland has encouraged children as young as 10 to get involved in firearm safety classes.
One mother told the outlet that she feels like her children are on the right side of history with the training. “We are very proud that our children want to be on the right side of history, to defend our country and to be patriotic,” mother Monika Stolinska said.
Gun laws in Poland aren’t remotely what we’d tolerate here in the United States, which makes the “European Texas” thing less accurate, but they’re actually not terrible as European gun control laws go.
That’s not to say they’re good, but they don’t completely suck compared to most other nations on the continent.
It’s just a shame that it takes a threat from Russia for European nations to suddenly realize the role firearms play in keeping a nation free. We saw this in Ukraine prior to Russia’s invasion there and now Poland is taking steps.
But these are steps that every free nation should embrace. These kinds of classes should be included in all curriculums throughout the Western world, but they should be combined with very liberal gun rights policies that make sure the average citizen is armed and ready should Putin feel froggy and decide to jump.
Sure, Poland is part of NATO and a Russian invasion would trigger Article V, which means we’d be rolling in there soon afterward, but Russia could gain a lot of ground before we could respond–no, I’m not assuming the rest of NATO would get there any faster because most of them have a defense budget that amounts to “Let the Americans do it.”
So that means that armed citizens would serve as a first line of defense. Sure, they might not be able to take out tanks–though I’m not betting on that considering how easily Russia’s tanks have been taken out in Ukraine–but tanks don’t run all by themselves. They need support, both logistical and infantry support. Take those out and you can hamstring Russia with just small arms.
I’m proud of Poland here and think we should be doing the same. You don’t need to wait for the worst before you start preparing for it. In fact, doing so it kind of a disaster waiting to happen.
Read the full article here